Chapter 16

"Let's make a pit stop at the local gas planet and fill our hydrogen tanks. Then let's get some CO2 at the third planet. Mary, what is our xenon status?" asked Jennifer.

"Our xenon is down to fifty percent. I expect to increase that to seventy percent before we leave this solar system," stated Mary as she prepared the ship to visit the third planet.

"Jennifer, I found the trajectory of Voyager 1. All the satellites and probes from NASA and the European space agency are in our navigation system. I am planning three stops for course correction on our journey to Earth." Mellissa continued to work.

"Howard and I have compiled a digital file. The file explains Warp drive theory and documents our warp drive technology. Elon will be able to build faster than light ships when he gets this file. We describe the Jimworl threat, including the Jimworl nerve gas. And Howard's notes will answer many missing person mysteries. The file is 100 megabytes of data.

If we transmit from the edge of the solar system, the transmission time will be hours. We should send the file at least twice. But what makes this impractical is that NASA only talks to the Voyager 1 and the Voyager 2 space craft an average of once a week. NASA would likely miss our transmission.

However, NASA is almost always talking to the spacecraft around Mars, and Mars is now about 30 light minutes from Earth. Because Earth and Mars are close together, we can transmit at a high baud rate and send the file twice in five minutes. The complication is that the Jimworl are likely monitoring Mars very closely."

Mellissa asked, "Could we send a physical message to Elon? Cut a disk, put it in a probe and send the probe to Earth?"

"Howard and I could design such a probe. It would look like a meteorite as it came through the atmosphere. The problem is that the Jimworl will destroy it, if they know it came from us." Charlie continued, "Worel said that the Jimworl had relocated their bases from Mars to Uranus; but they continue to monitor Mars."

Mary asked, "Charlie, what do you recommend?"

"I have several ideas. We could visit Uranus and destroy the Jimworl base. We may get lucky and catch the nerve gas tankers. But that idea does not get any information to Elon.

I believe that we should make our transmission to Elon from Mars. Maybe go five light seconds beyond Mars." Charlie waited for everyone to consider his ideas.

"I like the idea of a sneak attack on the Uranus base. It would be like Pearl Harbor in the Second World War. The Jimworl would have fewer assets to send after us. The down side is that we may lose our chance to contact Elon." Mary continued, "I want our xenon tanks full before there is any chance of combat."

Jenifer spoke, "If our attack on the Uranus base fails, we could be destroyed. That base may be well defended. It is a big unknown.

Charlie, our phasors control system allows us to easily defeat the Jimworl defensive shields. Have you and Howard come up with any ideas to improve it?"

"Howard and I can increase phasor output ten percent and improve our shields three percent. The changes involve increasing the voltage on the capacitors. We have been operating at eighty-five percent of theoretical safe maximum. It would take us two days to make the phasor changes. After we make the changes, we should test the phasors; maybe blow up an asteroid somewhere. I would also like to build another capacitor while we travel to Earth. It would be good to have a backup, but that would completely deplete our CO2. If we build the spare capacitor, we should stop at a gas planet on the way to Earth and fill up." Charlie realized he had a lot of work to do.

Mellissa addressed Charlie, "We do not have room for another capacitor."

"If we leave our carbon nano rope with Brian, we will have room," answered Charlie.

Jenifer hailed Brian, "We are going to visit Earth to warn them. We will head back when we complete our mission. We are leaving our carbon nano rope with you. Good luck."

"Let me summarize our plans. We head to Earth at warp 450. We stage hydrogen bags to help us create a false trail for anyone chasing us. We stop ten light years short of Earth's solar system. We search until we find a planet with a CO2 rich atmosphere. We gas up. We find a target and fire our improved phasors. If the test goes well, we head on to Earth. We approach to within one light year of Earth and fix our position. We put the ship in stealth mode and head to Uranus. We find the Jimworl base and engage the Jimworl. If we are successful and completely neutralize them, we head to Mars. We transmit our file to NASA and hope they get it to Elon and we head out to our hydrogen bags. If things go badly at Uranus we head directly to our gas bags and escape." Jennifer waited for someone to voice any concerns.

Mellissa had concerns. "Charlie, when you and Elon collaborated to build carbon nano assemblies, did you encode your documents?"

Charlie light up, "Yes, we did, and I have the algorithms."

Mellissa went on, "I think that we should encode the files and address them to Elon. If NASA gets possession of them, nothing good will happen."

All five crew members agreed. Charlie went off to encode the files and address them to Elon.

Mars1 engaged warp drive and left on her mission to Earth.

...

While chasing the two unknown ships, Captain Jerree had exited for a third time to check his position. Jerree hailed the second scout ship, "Lisaee, I can no longer detect the ion trail of the two ships we follow. We are heading toward the Orion Nebula. Do you see any sign of them?"

Lisaee did detect something, "A plutonium powered ship passed here. We detected just a few atoms. I am sending a probe to Captain Andrew. The Orion Nebula is a big place. We would have to be very fortunate to find the ships. The good news is that the ships seem to be going on a very straight route to their destination."

Jerree and Lisaee traveled for another seven days. By the fourth day they lost all signs of Mars1.

On the seventh day, Captain Andrew sent a return probe to Jerree and ordered him back to Omega3.

Captain Andrew hailed Shan, "I have ordered Jerree to return. He has lost the trail of the two ships.

In the short time we have been here, we have deflected two asteroids that would have hit you. If you stay and wait for help, you may be destroyed by an asteroid. We invite you to hitch a ride with us to Worlco. I say 'hitch' because, in any case, we are going to Worlco."

Shan thought, "I haven't told Andrew the location of Worlco. This must be his way of telling me that he will demand that I tell him. This is bad. The radio chatter near Worlco will be ablaze with discussions of Earth and humans; and I will have to defend our treatment of humans. Andrew will know that we have experimented on humans.

If we stay here and wait for relief, we may perish. We cannot get our shields or phasors on line. Jennifer really busted us up. I wish that I could go back to plumbing."

Shan answered, "We would appreciate the ride. When can we leave?"

...

Mars1 left warp drive 100 light years from Earth and dropped five hydrogen filled bags. The bags were placed one light minute apart. Mars1 then changed direction, and engaged warp drive.

She left warp drive fifty light years from Earth and dropped another five hydrogen filled bags. Mars repeated this every ten light years.

Mary exited warp drive ten light years from Earth.

"The sun looks like a pinprick of light from here. How do you want to do this, Jennifer," asked Mary?

"Don't worry about stealth. Bring us into the solar system. Charlie, scan for CO2."

"The fifth planet has an atmosphere with fifty percent CO2. This is an interesting star system. I don't think any planet can support life. Radiation levels are high. I am setting shields at maximum to protect us from the radiation. There is a nice asteroid belt we can use for target practice after we gas up," and Charlie kept working his scan.

There was life. Mellissa was surprised, "Sensors indicate plant life, carbon based. I see no signs of animal life. This is interesting to find plant life with high radiation levels. Let's gas up and do some target practice. Maybe the asteroids are as interesting as this planet."

Mars1 collected gas, and liquefied it. She fractionalized the CO2, and discarded the remaining gas.

Four hours later with Mellissa at the helm, Mars1 entered the asteroid belt.

Jennifer ordered, "Lower shields to twenty percent. Mellissa, bring us into range of the ice ball asteroid. Charlie, you may test your phasor improvements."

Mary shouted, "I detect plutonium. The Jimworl have been here recently."

Everyone on the crew looked at the scan results. Charlie saw something, "Scan indicates a million ton asteroid composed of heavy metals."

Mellissa took Mars1 close to asteroid. "Scan shows this asteroid has a high concentration of uranium and thorium."

Charlie wanted to do more scouting. "Mellissa, let's scout some asteroids."

Mars1 detected uranium, gold, lead, platinum, thorium and an enemy Jimworl ship.

Jennifer ordered, "Increase shields to one hundred percent. Charlie, charge phasors; prepare xenon weapon system. We are going to do some shooting."

Mellissa reported, "Sensors indicate two ships. One is definitely a Jimworl cruiser. The other is probably a mining ship. Both have charged their phasors."

Jennifer ordered, "I want a 360 degree scan. Scan twenty light minutes out."

The cruiser positioned herself between the mining ship and Mars1. She was four light minutes from Mars1.

"There is a second cruiser approaching from our starboard," Mellissa calmly reported.

"Mary, you are on weapons. I want that cruiser and mining ship destroyed. Charlie, you are on scanners. Mellissa you have the helm. Let's engage them before the second cruiser gets here."

"Mary, we will head directly at the cruiser. That will rob the mining ship of a shot at us. When we get to one light minutes distance, I am going to change course to our starboard for three seconds and then to our port," Mellissa would give the Jimworl ships a moving target.

The cruiser and Mars1 maintained their courses. When they were three light minute apart, Mary fired her scout phasor pulse, masked by a one second xenon blast.

One minute later, Mars1 was rocked. Phasor fire from both the cruiser and the mining ship hit her. Shields held at ninety percent. If Mars1 would have taken the blast broadside, she would have suffered major damage.

"Maybe I shouldn't have held course so long," said Mellissa and she executed her maneuvers. "We just took phasor fire from both ships."

The Mars1 fire control system read the cruiser's reaction to the scout phasor pulse. Charlie increased the voltage across one bank of starboard phasor capacitors by a conservative one percent.

Mary fired her portside phasors at the cruiser. Eight seconds later, Mary fired her starboard phasors at the cruiser.

Mellissa changed course again. Mars1 was now heading at a ninety degree angle away from the cruiser mining ship combination. Mary's starboard phasors impacted the cruiser. The cruiser took the full phasor blast in her portside forward quarter. The cruiser's portside shields crashed, and then recovered to the ten percent level. Four seconds later Mary's portside phasors partially impacted the cruiser.

The phasor blast ruptured the cruiser's hull. The ship's crew fought to contain the damage. After a five minute fight the cruiser exploded.

Mellissa continued evasive maneuvers. The captain of the mining ship fired his phasors and missed Mars1. He felt doomed. His ship could not maneuver; he was anchored to an asteroid. The mining ship was going to take the full impact of Mars1 portside phasors. Her captain would fire his phasors after they were charged. He would have to wait another twenty seconds.

But Mars1 did not fire at the mining ship.

A phasor barrage from the second cruiser did no damage to Mars1. The cruiser captain had given up on anticipating Mellissa's maneuvers. He fired a spread phasor volley. Ten percent of his phasor energy hit Mars1 and did no damage. Mars1 shields held at ninety percent.